Permanent Portfolio

The Permanent Portfolio by Harry Browne aims to protect and grow your money in an unpredictable world by diversifying across four fundamental economic conditions.

Asset Allocation
Author
Overview
Articles
Alternatives
Performance

Asset Allocation

25% Total Stock Market
25% Long Term Bonds
25% Cash
25% Gold

Other Versions

Browne specifically chooses T-bills for the cash portion of the portfolio, and the charts all show the returns according to his recommendation. However, if you read about the Permanent Portfolio it’s pretty common for its followers to choose short term bonds. The charts with short term bonds are pretty similar.

Local Interpretations

Find country-specific versions and appropriate ETFs using the Performance charts.

Author

Harry Browne

Author, politician, and investment adviser. An advocate for free markets and free people, Harry Browne was the Libertarian presidential nominee in 1996 and 2000. He talks about the Permanent Portfolio in his book Fail-Safe Investing.

Overview

The Permanent Portfolio is built on the idea that while the future is unknowable, the economy fluctuates between a few known states — prosperity, recession, inflation, and deflation. While some portfolio managers apply the idea of “risk parity” to balance the volatility risk between assets, Harry Browne believed in using the same idea to balance economic risk. So he chose four assets that he saw as uniquely qualified to respond positively in each of the four economic conditions.

Prosperity: stocks
Recession: cash
Inflation: gold
Deflation: long term treasuries

Brown equally weighted the four assets to protect and grow his money no matter what happens in the market. And the resulting portfolio has proven to be one of the most consistent on record with dependable returns, low drawdowns, and high withdrawal rates.

In addition to Browne’s own writings, An excellent modern guide is The Permanent Portfolio: Harry Browne’s Long-Term Investment Strategy by Craig Rowland and J. M. Lawson.